Next Match – Dulwich Hamlet – Home
City will be hoping to continue their recent excellent form, which has encouraged hopes of a late push for the play-offs, when they welcome Dulwich Hamlet to Twerton Park on Tuesday evening.
This is of course the third time the two clubs will have attempted to play this fixture, the first in early November being abandoned following the horrific injury suffered by Alex Fletcher and January’s rearranged match which was postponed due to a frozen pitch.
The south London club have had a poor season, spending all of it so far in the lower half of the table and currently lie in 18th place having lost 11 of their last 15 games.
One of these defeats of course was against City three weeks ago when goals from Scott Wilson and Elliot Frear (the latter a last minute cross come shot) secured a 2-1 victory to shock most of the 3000+ crowd.
Soon after, Dulwich manager Paul Barnes was replaced by Hakan Hayrettin who led Maidstone United to the league title last season.
Since then the new boss has inspired pleasing home wins over St Albans and Havant but he has been unable to arrest the alarming away form which has seen four consecutive defeats, including 6-0 and 5-1 score lines at Worthing and Chelmsford respectively.
Last season’s encounter at Twerton between the two clubs was played in April and ended goalless, which considering Jack Batten’s 15th minute red card, was seen as a point gained rather than two lost in our fight against relegation.
But with goals at both ends of the pitch in nearly all of Hamlet’s games so far, such a score line looks unlikely this time.
This will be the sixth meeting between the two clubs at Twerton since 1980 when City’s FA Trophy dreams were dashed in a 3-1 defeat.
We had to wait 38 years to settle that score with two wins in consecutive seasons, the second courtesy of a Tom Smith hat trick in 2020.
A reminder that entry is free for this rearranged match but donations to cover additional costs are welcome at the gate!
